Through just under two hours of soccer played at the Laurentian University pitch Wednesday afternoon, the scene was awash with excitement, a buzz that prevailed throughout.
And then, deafening silence.
With just under three minutes remaining in the second 15-minute overtime session of the Voyageurs first round playoff battle with the Carleton Ravens, the visitors capitalized on a lengthy punt from keeper Nathan Frans and a fortuitous bounce that made its way somehow to talented striker Jaeden Mercure.
One could have heard a pin drop as a good-sized crowd of equal parts L.U. students and familiar faces in the community who have frequented this pitch in the past decade or two watched the game-winning tally slide past Laurentian keeper Nate Shull, the Ravens securing their 2-1 win by playing out the remaining ten minutes or so (including extra time) with nary a chance for the Vees.
While Laurentian finished just ahead of Carleton in the final standings with a record of 5-2-5, it was the Ravens who opened the 2026 season as a nationally ranked team. Through ninety minutes of regulation time, the teams traded chances, with Omar Darwish opening the scoring for the Ottawa-based crew (31st minute) and Daniel Alexa pulling L.U. even, pouncing on a bounding ball in the box and making no mistake, just before the half.
Though the score remain unchanged for the next 75 minutes or so, that was not a product of either team sitting back, with both sides taking their best shot as opportunities arose. A chat earlier this week with Voyageurs’ head coach Brendan Teeling and a post-game interview with Carleton bench boss Marcelo Plada suggested that neither team was particularly enamoured with playing such a meaningful game on grass – though both knew that this was the hand they were dealt.
“We had to play within the elements,” stressed Plada when asked of his team’s pre-game keys. “That was one of the things that we told the players, that we cannot rely on how we play technically, usually. Grinding it out and finding solutions we are not used to was huge.”
With a record of 6-4-2, Carleton was facing Laurentian for the third time this year, a scoreless tie in the nation’s capital in early September giving way to a 1-0 Ravens’ win in Sudbury two weeks water that was nullified by a forfeiture as Carleton self-declared an ineligible player.
“We respect this team a lot,” said Plada. “They are a very good team and we were happy to find a way to score at the end.”
Ironically, the team that entered the playoffs still ranked in the top-ten in the country (as of October 19th) did so by using the unconventional playing surface (by OUA standards) to their advantage.
“It’s a tough field to play on,” said Plada. “The natural habits for our players is to play on turf so they tend to rely on their technical abilities. Here, if it takes a funny bounce, it can go either way.”
“We practiced on grass pitches the whole week, knowing we were coming here,” Plada added. “It helped, I think, at the end of the day.”
The heart-breaking loss ends an impressive first season under the watch of coach Brendan Teeling for the local side, the native of Ireland guiding the locals to a home playoff game for the first time in 13 years.
Proving that the regular season was anything but a fluke, the Voyageurs pushed Carleton to the brink, though the Ravens were certainly the better team in overtime, seemingly not all that interested in taking their chances from the 18 yard stripe.
“We did not want to go into penalties,” said Plada. “We’ve got an exceptional goalkeeper, an all-star, in my opinion, but you don’t want to leave it to chance. I told the fellas it was coming. Just keep attacking, as much as you can, and we got fortunate.”
